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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Oregon State Frater Gets 8 Years for Rape

OSU student gets 8 years for frat party rapeThis is a press release from the Benton County District Attorney's Office:

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Judge Janet Holcomb sentenced 20-year-old Gregory Thomas Sako to 8 years, 4 months in prison on Tuesday for the crime of first-degree rape. After completion of the sentence, he will have more than 11 years of parole. Sako will also be required to register as a sex offender and submit his DNA to Oregon’s criminal database.

The conviction stemmed from a jury verdict after a four-day trial that began on May 11. The State was represented by Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Stringer, who presented 17 witnesses including six expert witnesses on such topics as forensics, medical examination, sex abuse trauma and alcoholic blackout.

The rape occurred at a Halloween fraternity party at Oregon State University where the evidence showed that Sako was dressed as a beer bottle and the victim was dressed as the Disney character Tinkerbell. Although there was no evidence that the victim was clinically intoxicated at the time, there was evidence that alcohol played a factor in the defendant’s conduct.

The State presented evidence including the victim’s blood soaked Halloween costume, photographs of both the victim’s and the defendant’s blood stained underwear, medical testimony of vaginal tearing and a transcript of Sako’s interview with detectives where he both denied having sex as well as saying that he could not remember parts of the evening. The State presented testimony which showed that the DNA inside Sako’s underwear belonged to the victim - with the odds against that being 1 in 10 billion.

The defendant was represented by Stephen Ensor Esq., who presented two expert witnesses on the topics of medical examination and sex abuse trauma, several members of the defendant’s fraternity and a California businessman who testified on behalf of the defendant’s character for non-violence and lawfulness.

Sako is a graduate of Menlo-Atherton High School in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. At the time of the crime he was a sophomore at Oregon State University, a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and a cadet in the Air Force ROTC.

The victim was a 21-year-old college student from Portland, Ore., who remains unidentified by policy.